Former Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention Director Susan Monarez is showing earlier than the Senate Committee on Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions on Wednesday for her first public look since she was pushed out of her place main the nation’s public well being company.
Republican Sen. Invoice Cassidy, the panel’s chair and a health care provider from Louisiana who was one of many key votes to substantiate Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stated he was targeted on studying what led to the abrupt firing of Monarez simply weeks after her affirmation.
“A part of our duty in the present day is to ask ourselves, if somebody is fired 29 days after each Republican votes for her, the Senate confirms her, the secretary stated in her swearing in that she has ‘unimpeachable scientific credentials’ and the president referred to as her an unimaginable mom and devoted public servant — like what occurred? Did we fail? Was there one thing we must always have performed otherwise?” Cassidy stated.
Monarez, in her opening assertion, gave an in depth timeline on the chain of occasions that she stated led to her ouster.
“Since my elimination, a number of explanations have been supplied: that I informed the secretary I’d resign, that I used to be not aligned with administration priorities, or that I used to be untrustworthy. None of these mirror what truly occurred,” Monarez stated.
Monarez stated there was a gathering wherein she says Kennedy informed her to preemptively settle for suggestions from a CDC vaccine advisory panel and to fireside profession officers overseeing vaccine coverage.
“I’d not decide to that, and I consider it’s the true cause I used to be fired,” Monarez stated. She later added, “I used to be fired for holding the road on scientific integrity.”
Former Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention Director Susan Monarez arrives to testify earlier than a Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 17, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
She additionally claimed that Kennedy spoke to the White Home “a number of occasions” previous to the assembly about firing her.
Kennedy, in a listening to earlier than the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, disputed Monarez’s model of occasions, which she first shared that very same day in an op-ed revealed by the Wall Avenue Journal.
“Did you, in reality, do what Director Monarez has stated you probably did, which is inform her, ‘Simply associate with vaccine suggestions, even if you happen to did not suppose such suggestions aligned with scientific proof?'” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., requested Kennedy.
“No, I didn’t,” Kennedy replied.
In a fiery alternate with Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Kennedy claimed Monarez informed him she was untrustworthy.
“I informed her that she needed to resign as a result of I requested her, ‘Are you a reliable particular person?’ And he or she stated, ‘No,'” Kennedy replied. “In case you had an worker who informed you they weren’t reliable, would you ask them to resign, Senator?”
Monarez on Wednesday, nonetheless, testified Kennedy informed her the childhood vaccine schedule could be altering in September and “I wanted to be on board with it.” Monarez stated Kennedy spoke to President Trump “day-after-day” about altering the childhood vaccine schedule.
“He didn’t have any knowledge or science to level to,” Monarez stated. “As a matter of truth, we obtained into an alternate the place I had prompt that I’d be open to altering childhood vaccine schedules if the proof or science had been supportive, and he responded that there was no science or proof related to the childhood vaccine schedule. And he elaborated that CDC had by no means collected the science or knowledge to make it accessible associated to the security and efficacy.”
“To be clear, he stated there was not science or knowledge, however that he nonetheless anticipated you to alter the schedule?” Sen. Cassidy requested.
“Appropriate,” Monarez stated.
Chairman Sen. Invoice Cassidy speaks throughout a listening to with the Senate Committee on Well being, Schooling, Labor, and Pensions within the Dirksen Senate Workplace Constructing, September 17, 2025 in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures
Monarez is being joined at Wednesday’s listening to by Deb Houry, former chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science on the CDC, who was certainly one of 4 prime CDC officers who resigned in protest after Monarez was ousted.
The high-profile departures raised alarm over Kennedy’s vaccine coverage agenda, which the general public well being officers stated they had been being requested to endorse with out satisfactory science. Kennedy stood by the current shakeups at CDC, saying they had been “completely vital changes to revive the company to its function because the world’s gold commonplace public well being company with a central mission of defending Individuals from infectious illness.”
Sen. Cassidy informed Monarez and Houry on Wednesday that “the onus is upon you to show that the criticisms leveled by the secretary will not be true.”
Cassidy’s choice to pursue oversight of the CDC turmoil signifies a brand new, firmer period for his relationship with Kennedy — a shift was on full show throughout Kennedy’s personal listening to earlier than the Senate earlier this month.
The senator accused Kennedy of undermining President Donald Trump’s legacy on Operation Warp Velocity, the federal government effort that fast-tracked the COVID vaccine, and informed him current FDA adjustments to COVID vaccines had been “denying” folks entry.
Democratic Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who sits on the HELP Committee and has referred to as for Kennedy to step down, stated Cassidy’s choice to name Monarez to testify confirmed a continued “weakening” of help for the secretary.
“I believe Secretary Kennedy’s actions on the Finance Committee left loads of not simply Democrats, however Republicans very unsettled,” Blunt Rochester informed ABC Information in an interview.
“The truth that a Republican is chairing the committee and referred to as for her to come back is a optimistic step, and perhaps reveals there may be some weakening. However the actuality is, , Secretary Kennedy must go — whether or not that’s he is fired, whether or not he quits, he’s unsafe for America,” she stated.
In the course of the Senate Finance Committee listening to on Sept. 4, Cassidy was joined by two different Republicans on the committee — Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the second strongest GOP senator, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who introduced earlier this 12 months he was not operating for reelection — in expressing concern over Kennedy’s dealing with of vaccines and the CDC.
Different high-level Republicans have additionally voiced criticism, together with Senate Majority Chief John Thune, who stated Kennedy needed to “take duty” for firing Monarez simply 4 weeks after the Senate confirmed her. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine stated she did not see any “justification” for the termination.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy, Cassidy’s counterpart in Louisiana, referred to as Kennedy’s dealing with of the CDC a “a number of car pileup.”
Monarez, who HHS publicly introduced was “now not director” on a Wednesday afternoon in late August, drew widespread consideration when she refused to depart her put up, asking Trump to weigh in and hearth her immediately if he agreed together with his HHS secretary. She stated she was pushed out as a result of she would not comply with rubber-stamp Kennedy’s agenda or hearth high-ranking scientists.
Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr is interviewed exterior of the White Home West Wing, September 9, 2025 in Washington.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Pictures
The transfer put a highlight on Kennedy’s vaccine coverage adjustments, which have ramped up in current weeks. Kennedy canceled round $500 million in contracts for mRNA vaccines, modified the suggestions for wholesome youngsters and pregnant girls to obtain COVID-19 vaccinations and, by way of the FDA, oversaw the narrowing of approval for the up to date COVID pictures this fall solely to folks over 65, or youthful Individuals with underlying circumstances.
A CDC committee will quickly meet to debate vaccine suggestions extra broadly, together with the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (MMRV) vaccine, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
Kennedy has changed the entire members of the committee with handpicked folks, a few of whom have expressed criticism of vaccines. Requested by ABC Information if he plans to restrict entry to any of these vaccines, Kennedy stated the committee would determine after a “actual gold commonplace scientific assessment.”
Monarez on Wednesday expressed issues with the composition of the advisory committee.
“Based mostly on what I noticed throughout my tenure, there may be actual danger that suggestions could possibly be made proscribing entry to vaccines for youngsters and others in want with out rigorous scientific assessment. With no everlasting CDC director in place, these suggestions could possibly be adopted,” Monarez stated.
